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Last year, Capcom reminded us just how cool a side-scrolling, 2D beat-'em-up could be with the release of Viewtiful Joe for GameCube. This oddly named title may have played like an old-fashioned brawler, but its unique visual style and crazy variety of special moves brought a whole new level to this well-worn genre making it one of the best games of the year. Now, the sequel is here, but does it still have the magic of the original?

As in the first game, you play as Joe, the obsessive movie geek turned spandex-clad superhero that enters the world of movies to fight hordes of evil robots and their bizarre masters. In the first game, he was out to rescue his girlfriend, Sylvia. This time around, in a plot that's sure to get the legal attention of the Academy Awards people, Joe's out to collect some multicolored statuettes called "Rainbow Oscars." Don't ask why. It's all (sorta) explained through a series of bizarre and often hilarious cinemas.

Joining Joe this time around is Sylvia herself. Having already been rescued, she's now getting into the superhero biz. Although many fans had hoped that VJ2 would feature a two-player mode, there isn't one (VJ3 maybe?). Instead, Capcom has incorporated what it likes to call "Viewtiful Touch," which is a fancy term for "switch between Joe and Sylvia whenever you want." The two characters have their own unique VFX Power, making them useful in different situations.

Sylvia shows the Flaty robots just how flexible she can be.

Makin' Movie Magic

If you've not played the original, VFX Powers are really what set this game apart from other beat-'em-ups. Since the action takes place within the world of movies, Joe (and now Sylvia) has special moves that reflect their action movie origins. Returning from the first game is Slow, which (as one would imagine) makes everything run in slow motion. During this time, your attacks become stronger, you can reflect bullets back at the enemy, and skillfully dodge enemy attacks to set up massive combos.

Mach Speed is the polar opposite of Slow, and it's a skill that only Joe can use. Here, Joe attacks so fast that he splits into multiple images, each one doing tremendous damage. After a bit, Joe bursts into flames, allowing him to start fires, which you'll have to do to get past a few of the game's puzzles. There's also Zoom, which focuses the action in on our heroes. While zoomed in, a whole new selection of moves becomes available, including rapid fire punches and a spinning kick.

Sylvia's exclusive VFX Power is new in VJ2. Replay allows you to, well, replay Sylvia's last action, causing it to repeat three times. This means triple the damage for enemies, but also triple the damage if you happen to get hit while in replay mode. If you perform an effective replay, Sylvia becomes charged with electricity, which, like Joe's fire, is necessary to overcome certain obstacles.